TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Social arm of the Catholic Church in Goa, the Council of Social Justice and Peace (CSJP) has criticized the Town and Country Planning department for its letter to the Directorate of Panchayats indicating that the gram sabhas had no right to reject permissions for mega projects accusing it of acting on behalf of the builders’ lobby.
The CSJP has now written a letter to the Chief Secretary as well as the Secretary of Panchayats shredding the legality of the letter sent from the TCP.
The Town and Country Planning Department had sent a letter to the Director of Panchayats asking him to communicate to the panchayats that gram sabhas do not have legal standing to either grant or revoke permissions to construct or to interfere with permission.
“This Council is outraged at the gross misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the Sections of the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, but more so that the Director of Panchayats... permits himself to be led by the Chief Town Planner to circulate the grossly misleading letter to the respective village panchayats without legal assessment by his own office,” Soter D’Souza of the CSJP said.
D’Souza said that the TCP was seeking to mislead the poor and gullible villagers leading them to become hesitant while opposing mega projects in their respective villages.
“In any case if a gram sabha resolution is not sound in law, the law provides that the aggrieved party can refer an appeal before the Directorate of Panchayats, which has to decide,” D’Souza said.
He instead countered that the chief town planner should “devote his time seeing if his TCP Act is in consonance with the 73rd Amendments to the Constitution and put his structure in place instead of taking time to undo gram sabhas which are the supreme village parliament,” D’Souza said.
“If the gram sabha has no say in the infrastructure of the village, then what are they meant to do or pick up the garbage and treat the sewage after the mega projects are come up,” D’Souza asked.